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About The Conservative (Nebraska City, Neb.) 1898-1902 | View Entire Issue (April 13, 1899)
V IV * , s. . 4 V . # < T d Cbe VOL. i. NEBRASKA CITY , NEB. , THURSDAY , APRIL 13 , 1899. NO. 40. IMTIIMBIIKI ) WKKKI.Y. OKK10ES : OVERLAND THEATRE BLOCK. .1. STERLING MORTON , EDITOR. A JOUItNAIi U13VOT15I ) TO TIIK DISCUSSION IK 1'OrilTIGAT * , KCONCWIO AND HOOIOI.OOIOAI , QUESTIONS. CIRCULATION THIS WEEK 5,712 COPIES. TERMS OF SUBSCRIPTION. Ono dollar and n half per ytmr , in ndvanco , postpaid , to any part of the United States or Canada. Remittances made iiaynblu to Thu Morton Printing Company. Address , Tun CONHRKVATIVK , Nebraska City , Nob. Advertising Rates madu known upon appli cation. Entered at the poatofflco at Nebraska City , Nob. , as Second Class matter , July iiflth , 1808. Political parties , OM AND NKW PAltTIKS. HOW existing 111 tlio United States were born , not maclo. That which is to take hold of and formulate the history of the American republic must bo evolved from the history of that republic. Individuals therefore can not out of their own conscious efforts create or in augurate a new political movement or organization. Such movements and or ganizations have always been evolutions out of the mental , moral and political drift rather than preconceived inten tional departures. The first great national party after the adoption of the constitution was gradual in formation , growth and organization. It is difficult to name the date of its origin. But under the virile and wise leadership of Jefferson who energized and enthused it with his personal force and persistent activity it achieved vic tory. The whig party and the democratic party of the twenties and thirties were an evolution , with two great individunl- itios , Olay and Jackson , as motors and dominant figures. But oven in those or ganizations the movements created the leaders. The leaders did not create the parties. The republican party was first organized and christened at a regular nominating convention of those The itoimiiiioniiH advocating its of 1854. . . . _ , principles , in Jack- sou , Michigan , in the summer of 1854. Among the men present who subse quently became its leaders were Wm. A. Howard , Jacob M. Howard , Kinsley S. Biuglmm , Austin Blair and Kaoh Chandler. The organization was con stituted of former members of the whig party , the free-soil party and the demo cratic pnrty. They did not premeditatedly - tedly and advisedly arrange for the pro duction and establishment of a new organization ; they merely obeyed a recognized discontent with all the old parties and fused together and involun tarily the new republican party was born into life , activity and strength. It had vigor and force because its principal and avowed object was liberty to the bondsmen , freedom for all human be ings in the United States , the abolition of African slavery. That was its vitality. That was its strength and its success. It conquered at last and slavery disappearing the mis sion of the original republican organiza tion , which came into life in 1854 , ran Fremont for the presidency in 1850 , and elected Lincoln in 1860 , seemed to have been perfectly completed. It does not now exist. Nearly every republican who gave glory and renown to the earlier days of republicanism subsequently when it had passed almost completely into the manipulation of small-bore oilice seekers cut loose and turned his back xipon its methods and masters. Great-hearted Lincoln , cut off as he was even before the last echoes of the war , yet had clear- Th immortal * j ranrked his do- " \Vlio "Renounced. . , . , . , . nation from the paths in which that , party was to march. Seward , most its leader in the days of its prime , at his ripest season , with his life almost a martyrdom in more ways than one , stood hopelessly at variance with it. Chase , its stateliest figure ; Sunnier , its stiffest conscience ; Greeloy , its ablest organ ; Schurz , its most exalted orator ; Beecher , its greatest pulpit and rostrum teacher ; Fessendeu , among its best and truest statesmen ; with so many more who were nearest like them , lived repub licans but republicans they could not die , at least not in the arms and odor of the party. And the noblest now in our midst who have borne the name , though they may not cast it off , yet ouo by one desert its tracks. Vast as the nation has now grown , yet so far from the individual patriot losing himself in its mass , Not Lost. , , , , . he has but the larger chance , at a time of balance and uncertainty , for useful work. If ho will do good , he can then do more good. If a million are hesitating where a thous and were of old , he may affect the mil lion as well as the thousand , and bo greater instead of smaller in the multi tude. A memorable instance is fresh in our experience. It is seldom given to one man , even in time of war , still less of untroubled peace , to shift the course of a great nation's political history as did President Cleveland by his revenue message of 1887. To close up ouco and for all the whole weary chapter of the war and all its irritating and abominable sequences , and to open a now chapter and face the country with its needs re quired courage and the supreme power of patriotic intent. "With unswerving fidelity to principles Grover Cleveland did that and more ; ho enforced business rules and economy in all the executive departments. He elicited by his dis creet conservatism , and his wholesome reduction of expenditures the approval of the best men in all parties. Ho re stored the democracy to power and pur ity because he adhered to principles and did the right for the right's own sake. Historians will write that the demo cracy during Cleveland's second term deserted the only captain who during a whole generation led them to victory and honorable service. The four years from 1898 to 1897 will bo described as a quadrennial of lost opportunities for democracy. Looking backward at the wild and tu multuous revolts against their chosen , their successful and their honestly and sincerely democratic president , the part isan insurgents , the time-servers , the ambitious demagogues , vagarists and fallacyites who formulated the platform at Chicago in 1896 , can discern only de feat and disaster and derision as fruits of their recusancy. And what may bo ; what is to be a logical result of their apostasy except a new party ? What can prevent a new party except renunciation of the money heresies , the recantation of the declared antagonism to the federal courts and their mandates ? Must intelligent voters be compelled to choose between imperialism , extrava gance , favoritism , protection and gen eral mal-adininistration on the one side and free-silver-at-sixteou-to-one , all manner of economic vagaries and Bry an archy on the other ? Is there not a need for a realignment of intelligent voters in the United States ? The evolutionary conditions can force a new party !
